360-Degree Feedback: The Full Circle

April 09, 2019

VAIRKKO

When organizations first began the process of performance evaluations or appraisals, the feedback typically flows from the top-down and ends there. Supervisors provide feedback to their direct reports, often times individual contributors. This leaves a lot to be desired, not only is the expectation that the supervisor has a thorough grasp on the work that the subordinate does (and remembers it), but the supervisor is also left unchecked for how the working relationship is going from the viewpoint of the subordinate. The aforementioned type of feedback is typically referred to as “downward feedback” because the conversation stems from the top and flows downward.

What is Talent Management?

April 02, 2019

VAIRKKO

Talent Management, as defined by Wikipedia, is “the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs.” That sounds a lot like what Human Resources does in an organization. But understanding the nuances between these two functions is imperative to better understanding your employees and meeting their needs on the job.

What is Rater Bias?

March 26, 2019

VAIRKKO

Businesses create processes and standards by which their employees are measured against to ensure that employees understand their role and job function, are competent in that role, and ultimately are an asset to the organization. This process is typically referred to as performance management. The idea of performance management and a review process is theoretically a good one. The best way to measure an employee’s performance is by asking their managers, peers, and subordinates how exactly the employee is performing in their job, what they can improve upon, and what they have mastered. Performance reviews can sometimes go as far as to determine when someone is up for a promotion or a raise - although tying reviews with compensation can be tricky (more on that in another blog).

Designing a Performance Evaluation for the First Time

March 19, 2019

VAIRKKO

Performance Evaluations can be tough to create, especially for the first time. If building off of a process that’s already in place, it’s easy to identify holes and areas of improvement to continue working towards a performance evaluation process that works for your organization’s culture and goals. However, building one from scratch can be significantly harder. Other than the obvious suggestion to remember that this process is iterative and can continue to be improved upon, the closer that you can get to an end result the first time around will help to ensure consistency over the years when evaluating an employee that has been around for that whole time.

Performance Management in 140 Characters or Less

March 12, 2019

VAIRKKO

In today’s Twitter-world, we don’t have time to read lengthy articles about processes that we should already know about. Unfamiliar with Performance Management? Here are three bite-sized definitions to help you get a little insight into performance management.

5 Features to Look for in an HRIS

March 19, 2018

VAIRKKO

We wanted to put together a list of five features to look for in an HRIS when you are shopping around. Some of these features seem like a no-brainer, especially since we are talking about human resources information systems, however, you’d be surprised to know that not one of the features mentioned is found in 100% of HRISs. Nothing is a given with this fast-changing technology and the HR software marketing, but these are the list of features that we think are non-negotiable. While this list is not exhaustive, it’s a good starting place to understand what is important and why when shopping for HR software and can help differentiate between your list of needs and wants when ultimately deciding what to purchase.

Employee Perspective: Accountability in the Millennial Age

5 Benefits of Adopting an HRIS

March 12, 2018

VAIRKKO

While Human Resources software continues to get more and more advanced, but also complex, there are few things that do not change: in this case, the benefits of employing an HRIS. While the industry is headed more towards cloud-based solutions, there are still solutions that exist that a company would store data on their own servers. While we’re not here to discuss the different options for an HRIS - the benefits remain the same whichever solution you decide to go with. In most cases, these benefits are present regardless of features and functionality because these come with even the bare minimum of standard features within a system.

How to Track Certifications in 4 Easy Steps without Missing Vital Information

March 06, 2018

VAIRKKO

Chances are, you’re here because you are looking for solutions to keep your ever-growing pile of employee certifications, licenses and training neatly organized for record-keeping purposes. No easy task. If you’re not here for that reason, there’s probably something new you can learn in this post. Tracking certifications, licenses, training, etc can become a really messy undertaking if you do not start with a good foundation of why you’re tracking anything, what is the goal of tracking, who will see the tracked information, and how exactly to begin.

HRIS vs HRMS: What Are They and How Are They Different?

March 05, 2018

VAIRKKO

If you haven’t caught up on our post discussing the differences between an HRIS and an HCM - now is a good time to head on over and read it before digging into this content. It’s possible you have not heard of an HCM, so our blog post would be a good place to start especially since you are probably evaluating and researching all your options if you are reading this article. To recap, an HRIS is a human resources information system software, in other words, it is software that is used as a tool to manage people, policies and procedures. An HRIS is the “basic” solution when looking for this type of software - and we use the term “basic” loosely, because there is a lot that is jam-packed into these applications.